Remembering ‘a day that will live in infamy’

Published 1:23 pm, Sunday, December 2, 2012

Lest we forget, 71 years ago, Dec. 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japanese planes.

At 8:10 a.m., Japanese planes began their attack on the island of Oahu, destroying warships, airfields, barracks, hangars and houses.

This surprise attack had been in the planning stage as far back as September 1941.

Vice Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto had been appointed commander in chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet early in 1941. Up to that time, the Japanese Naval General Staff was following a cautious policy.

With the Japanese military plans of attacking and seizing the Philippines and British and Dutch colonial possessions, Yamomoto did not believe the United States Pacific Fleet would remain at Pearl Harbor. This led to his making plans for the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The plans were told to the pilots on Oct. 5 and the final order to begin the attack came on Dec. 5.

The attack was made by attack planes called Zeros. These carrier-based light weight planes flew at a top speed of 330 miles per hour, making it the fastest attack plane at the time.

The armada of six air craft carriers and support ships slipped out of their harbors on Nov. 26. Fleet Commander was Vice Admiral Nagumo.

On Dec. 1, he received final orders to launch the attack and on the morning of Dec. 7, the battle group was in position 275 miles north of Hawaii.

The first attack wave consisted of fighter aircraft, torpedo bombers, high-level bombers and dive bombers took to the air and began assembling for the attack.

The initial attack began at 7:48 a.m.

In 1951 in a published report, Commander Mitsuo Fuchida, who led the first wave of air attack, told of the first bomb falling on Wheeler Field. This was followed by dive-bombing attacks on Hickam Field and the bases at Ford Island.

With a combination of armor-piercing bombs and torpedo attacks, explosions, smoke and fire began to break out on a number of ships.

At 8:30 a.m, the Japanese planes were running low on ammunition and fuel and began returning to the carriers.

At 9 a.m. another group consisting of 175 bomber and fighter planes attacked, destroying and damaging more ships.

Finally at 10 a.m., the second attack ended.

All together, the attack claimed 18 ships, sunk or badly damaged, including the USS Arizona with a loss of more than 1,200 sailors and the USS Oklahoma with a loss of 400 crewmen.

As for the Japanese, they lost 29 planes and their crews and five midget submarines. One Japanese sailor was captured.

Meanwhile in Washington, D.C., a 5,000-word message was being transmitted to the Japanese Embassy. The message which was a declaration of war was to be delivered before the attack.

Due to difficulties in deciphering and translation, the message was not delivered in time and the attack was made before any official declaration of war was made.

The next day, Dec. 8, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt made his address to Congress in which he declared. “Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”

Following the speech, in less than an hour, Congress unanimously agreed to declare war against Japan.

Nine hours earlier, following attacks on Malay, Singapore and Hong Kong, Britain declared war on Japan.

On December 11, under previous commitments of the Tripartite Pact in which Germany, Italy, and Japan agreed to objectives of limiting U.S. involvement in any conflicts with the three nations, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.

That same day, Congress issued a declaration of war against Germany and Italy.

Thus, World War II was under way.

On Aug. 8, 1945, World War II officially ended. When the smoke cleared, estimates placed the total of people killed between 50 to 70 million. One report estimated 72 million.